這個非凡故事的敘述者是一位追尋真理的人。他應徵了當地報紙上一位老師的徵才廣告，卻發現自己獨自一人處一間廢棄的辦公室，身邊只有一隻成年大猩猩，正輕輕地啃著一根細枝。 「你是老師？」他難以置信地問。 「我是老師，」大猩猩回答。以實瑪利擁有無比的智慧，他有一個故事要講述，一個從未有人聽過的故事。這個故事貫穿了地球的整個生命週期，從時間的誕生到仍有時間拯救的未來。如同所有偉大的老師一樣，以實瑪利拒絕讓課程變得簡單；他要求最終的啟蒙來自我們內心。統治世界是人類的命運嗎？或者，人類可能擁有一個更高的命運──一個比他想像的更美好的命運？
The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. “You are the teacher?” he asks incredulously. “I am the teacher,” the gorilla replies. Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time to save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man’s destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him—one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?
